by Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY

by Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY

Those cyber attacks against the United States, the Pentagon, in particular?

Not us, says China's Minister of National Defense Gen. Chang Wanquan.

"The Chinese military has never supported any sort of hacker activities," Chang said Monday at a joint news conference at the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

That's not the way the Pentagon sees it. In May, David Helvey, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, said that in 2012 "numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the United States government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to [Chinese] government and military organizations."

Hagel didn't challenge Chang. Perhaps he was trying to be a nice host.

The Pentagon's own report to Congress was more blunt:

"In 2012, numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military."

The report goes on to say that China is intent on stealing military and other government secrets for not-so-nice reasons.

"The information targeted could potentially be used to benefit China's defense industry, high technology industries, policymaker interest in US leadership thinking on key China issues, and military planners building a picture of U.S. network defense networks, logistics, and related military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis."

No, China, Chang maintained, is the victim of cyber attacks. Not the perp.